Political parties in the Galactic Republic/Empire
In the 25,000-plus years of the Galactic Republic, the Republic's politics were dominated by three political parties: the Red Party, the Blue Party, and the Yellow Party. The Red Party was organized from the very beginning of the Republic in 25,053 BBY as a pro-democratic, anti-authoritarian party organized by opponents of Xim the Despot. The Blue Party was as old as the Red Party and the Blues at first were a heterogeneous coalition of supporters and opponents of Xim, nobles of the Five Royal Houses, the corporations and guilds of the Merchant League, and the Force-using Jedi knights. The Yellow Party was created in 23,888 BBY by defectors from the Blue Party who were pro-Jedi who tired of the increasingly anti-Jedi stance of the Universal Church and guilds and corporations within the Merchant League who felt the Blue Party was not quite catering to their economic interests. The Yellow Party was essentially pro-Jedi and supported a strong centralized government. It was also close to nobles of the houses of the Hazat and the al-Malik and the corporations and guilds of the Merchant League. The Blue Party, like the Yellow, was also in favor of strong centralized government. It was suspicious of the Jedi knights and had close ties to the Universal Church of the Celestial Sun and nobles of the house of the Lihalan and some nobles of the houses of the Hawkwoods and the Decados. (Some Hawkwoods and Decados supported the Yellow Party, though.) The Red Party favored the authority of planetary and solar-system governments over that of the central Republic regime, and it was distrustful of the Five Royal Houses. The Yellow and Blue parties were divided into pro-Hawkwood, pro-Decados, and neutral factions. The Red Party included factions that were aligned with the Merchant League, the Jedi, the Incarnates, and the Universal Church, viewing these factions as better than the nobles of the Five Royal Houses. There were elements in all three parties that were aligned with the Order of Moffs. Over the centuries and the millennia, the Republic was most often controlled by Yellow-Blue coalitions, although on occasion the Red Party would come to power in coalition with the Yellow Party. Most Supreme Chancellors of the Galactic Republic were nobles of the houses of the Hawkwoods or the Decados AND members of the pro-Hawkwood or pro-Decados factions within the Yellow or Blue parties. On the relatively rare occasions the Red and Yellow parties ruled the Republic in coalition, the Supreme Chancellor was from the ranks of the Red Party. By 100 BBY, the rise of a new party, the Community Party for Nationalism, Order, and Reform (COMPNOR) had emerged. During the Clone Wars, Palpatine assumed power as at the head of a three-party, Blue-Yellow-COMPNOR coalition. During the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Red Party was outlawed due to allegedly treasonous leanings, though COMPNOR and the Blue and Yellow parties remained active in the Senate. When the Senate was dissolved in 0 ABY thanks to the rise of the Rebel Alliance via the Battle of Yavin, COMPNOR became the only legal political party until the Interim Imperial Council reestablished the Senate in 9 ABY and elected Thrawn the new Emperor. A new Imperial Democratic Party was legalized to provide COMPNOR political competition in the renewed Senate.